You’d be rewarded, and forgiven, if you considered The Crushery in Denver’s Platt Park neighborhood simply a sandwich shop. After all, you can get a very good, well-made and generously-sized sandwich to go for a reasonable price (about seven bucks). But your assessment would be incomplete.
You’d also be correct, if shortsighted, to label The Crushery a salad joint because you can certainly pick up a very good, well-made and generously portioned salad of fresh ingredients to go, also for a reasonable price (about eight bucks).
Or perhaps, to you, The Crushery is a bagel shop, with bagels boiled and baked on-site for about nine bucks a dozen.
Then again, in the right light, The Crushery is a handmade-ice-cream shop, complete with a flashy liquid nitrogen setup to add wow-factor to your instant ice cream.
The Crushery is each of these things, but when you sum up the disparate parts, you’ll find the whole is even greater than its pieces.
Open three or so years now, on that oh-so-friendly (but fiercely competitive) strip of South Pearl Street that also houses Den Deli and Pajama Baking Co., The Crushery has slowly but surely built a solid reputation among neighborhoodies both for its smart-casual fare and its smart-casual vibe. Always populated, but rarely packed solid, it’s the go-to spot for a simple summertime repast of salad and ice cream for walking-distance regulars with no intention of braving the lines at the Sushi Den or Pearl Street Grill just down the way. The space opens fully onto the sidewalk, meaning you can grab a two-top en plein air along one of the city’s loveliest neighborhood stretches, where you can nosh your way through a healthful, tasty meal without smashing shoulders with the dangerously stillettoed, heavily cologned scenesters that frequent the block.
If it’s breakfast time, have a bagel, which if not the New York City bagel of your dreams is a noble stand- in: warm, flavorful, chewy-crispy- bready-good. Pile it with whatever strikes your palate’s fancy, perhaps chorizo and egg, or cream cheese and lox, or, if you must, chocolate cream cheese. Or keep things simple and get it just with butter.
If it’s lunchtime, have a sandwich. The list of panini, each built on house-made foccacia and pressed in the warmer before being served, runs from the gonzo (shredded pork with green chile, queso fresco and chipotle mayo) to the guilty-pleasure (buffalo chicken with gorgonzola and arugula) to the mundane (turkey with bacon, tomato, provolone). The best may be the most restrained, a basil chicken with red onion and provolone. Or, build your own from the sprawling list of component choices. Whatever you choose, it will be more than enough; in fact, folks with more measured appetites would probably manage just fine splitting one sandwich.
If it’s dinnertime (which only happens Thursday through Saturday here), choose a salad. Big, crunchy vegetables, proteins if you want ’em (chicken, steak, tuna salad, even a few slices of lox). Ask them to go a on the light side with the dressing; the eager cooks here tend to oversauce the leaves.
Whatever meal you’re having, finish with ice cream, which the counter staff will make fresh for you with a mixer, some cream and sugar, and a canister of liquid nitrogen. Forty-five seconds in the mixer with the minus-321-degree liquid nitrogen yields fresh, creamy ice cream with ice crystals so tiny as to be imperceptible — all your tongue feels is creaminess. Pick your flavors from the menu (butterscotch, coffee, ginger, chamomile, even crushed Altoids or trail mix), then stroll with your treat.
The Crushery is a traditional but contemporary take on the classic sandwich shop. The menu and concept are neither revelatory nor surprising, but there is soulfulness in the cooking and an endemic, exquisite attention to detail that ensconces this neighborhood joint in the front of the growing peloton of Denver- area sandwich shops. Plan a visit soon.
What do you think about The Crushery, or other Denver sandwich shops? Visit denverpost.com/ restaurants to share your thoughts.
THE CRUSHERY
Sandwiches, salads, bagels, ice cream
1579 S. Pearl St., 303-733-4117; thecrushery.com
** (OUT OF 4)
Atmosphere: Friendly, casual room. Newspapers, local art, exposed brick, cute patio out back.
Service: Helpful, informal counter service
Prices: Sandwiches about $7; salads $7.75; bagel sandwiches $3.75 and up
Hours: Tuesday-Wednesday 7 a.m.-5 p.m.; Thursday-Saturday 7 a.m.-9 p.m.; Sunday 7 a.m.-5 p.m.; closed Monday
Details: Street parking. Takeout and home delivery available. Available for catering, can bring the ice cream show on the road.
Five visits
Our star system: ****: Exceptional ***: Great **: Very Good *: Good
